The storytelling or storytelling, is a form of narration in which certain messages, values and knowledge are transmitted through a story. In the areas of human communication, literature or media studies, storytelling is one of the standard canons of many scientific disciplines and discourses. Multimedia storytelling, that is, storytelling with the new media, is currently experiencing a renaissance, particularly in the field of marketing.
General information
The story in storytelling is different from a simple narration in which the author conveys the content, for example, using a narrator or a protagonist. The author and the narrator are two different characters. This difference should lead to listeners and readers can identify with the protagonist in a different way. Similarities, human weaknesses, or an action conflict promise that listeners and readers better absorb the narrated story and put themselves in the perspective of the narrator.
The purpose of this distinction, despite everything, is also to transmit knowledge and values - through the stylistic means of storytelling through the protagonist, the meaning of the story, the point or certain values can be better transmitted. This is accomplished, among other things, by the narrator not using a direct and objective approach, but rather pictorial actions, metaphors, or his own thoughts and feelings.
Storytelling in this dynamic allows the listener or reader to better understand and grasp the meaning of the story. Remember what must be transported. The way a story is told determines the perception of the story by readers and listeners. [1] Therefore, storytelling is a form of infotainment.
In practice
The principle of storytelling is used more often now. In literature and in media studies it is something natural, but in corporate communication and marketing it has been used for some years. Simply communicating facts and featured products is not always well received by customers and business partners.
Companies increasingly rely on storytelling to signal their business and communicate key corporate values. Meanwhile, people are moving away from the written text and taking advantage of the possibilities of the new media. Pictures say a thousand words - This maxim is applied to marketing and is successfully integrated into the commercial promotion of products.
Modern terms like "digital storytelling" and "liquid storytelling" mean the application of principles in these areas. Multimedia content is used to tell a story and convince interested customers. Brands and products come to life through images, videos or interactive websites. Very many times, it is based on a branding campaign or a specific commercial promotion of a product.
Opel's "U-Turn in your head" campaign is a good example. It is not the products that are in the foreground, nor the brand itself, but the Opel campaign that attracts the most attention and creates a new image for itself. At the same time, the campaign is defined in such a way that it is received by the public as a print advertisement and as a viral marketing campaign. Multichannel marketing and storytelling go hand in hand.
Special tools and platforms can support storytelling, for example photos on shared slides or interactive content in the project.
Importance for SEO
In the area of SEO, it always consists of good content. Since the latest Google updates, it has become clear that content marketing is an indispensable tool in online marketing. Storytelling is a possibility to promote and communicate content. Depending on whether it involves creating multi-value content for websites or entire campaigns, concepts such as corporate identity or branding play an important role in storytelling.
At the same time of the level of narration, there are also aspects that must formally characterize the respective contents so that Internet users can know them. And search engines can also do something with this content. For example, videos or images are tagged with keywords in the ALT attribute so that a crawler can retrieve them.
The structure of these stories is also essential for users and search engines to capture them. The aspect of the narrative form is therefore accompanied by several technical aspects that impact the accessibility of the content and, ultimately, also the quality. The results of a successful storytelling can be: viral attention, increased traffic, social signals, brand effects or even increased conversion rates when it consists of commercial promotion of well-made products, which is ideally new, unusual, interesting and hence convincing.
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